Mel Morris to put the club up for sale SHOULD Derby fail to win promotion....

[MackworthRamIsGod]

8 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Playing Devil's advocate; couldn't you argue that, under Mel's tenure, we've not got promoted, splunked millions on players that our now draining our club of money (Anya in particular), lost ground to Nottingham Forest despite them being run like a circus for the past few years, and have gone from being a club known for giving a manager time (Clough) to a club that could sack you after 9 games... 

Derby have played out a real life version of the Tortoise and the Hare.

When Mel came in he threw money at it, we tried bullying the smaller clubs like Brighton/Bournemouth/Burnley/Hull/Huddersfield to sell their better players to us (Dale Stephens and Dunk from Brighton and Francis from Bournemouth, Shackell from Burnley, Ince from Hull).  When we failed with some of these we moved onto the next big money signing knowing full well it was a matter of time before we went up.

But, mistake after mistake, sacking after sacking, we moved forward but we came out of the blocks too quick, meanwhile the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Huddersfield overtook us and reached the promised land, probably using the money we spent buying their players.

It is sad, but true.

[Topram]

Bloody hell, careful for what we wish for, look at Coventry Charlton Blackpool etc the EFL don’t care and would let any criminal run clubs, feel for Morris.

[Anag Ram]

5 minutes ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Derby have played out a real life version of the Tortoise and the Hare.

When Mel came in he threw money at it, we tried bullying the smaller clubs like Brighton/Bournemouth/Burnley/Hull/Huddersfield to sell their better players to us (Dale Stephens and Dunk from Brighton and Francis from Bournemouth, Shackell from Burnley, Ince from Hull).  When we failed with some of these we moved onto the next big money signing knowing full well it was a matter of time before we went up.

But, mistake after mistake, sacking after sacking, we moved forward but we came out of the blocks too quick, meanwhile the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Huddersfield overtook us and reached the promised land, probably using the money we spent buying their players.

It is sad, but true.

I think we bought players. They bought a team.

Too often we buy players with skills but who don't gel together. If you look at Sheffield United, for example, you wouldn't see many star names, but as a team they all know their roles and they graft for each other.

Personalities are more important than CVs.

[Day]

34 minutes ago, StivePesley said:

I didn't bother posting it here as I guessed it would probably get removed by the Mel Police

Mel Police? 

If fans use this board to peddle rumours without sources off as fact then yes, the moderators will remove. Be it about Mel, players signing, leaving or sexual activity as is often the case.

We will continue to moderate the forum this way regardless of who the owner is.

Whilst we may deny 1 fan the Internet points and glory for breaking ITK information first on this forum, we will take that over allowing the hundreds of others that want to peddle nonsense that comes out of these anonymous bedroom dwelling Twitter accounts on a daily basis.

These Mel selling rumours have been going on for the last couple of years now, whilst it “may” be true this time, I think the saying goes a stopped clock is always right twice a day.

Feel free to continue your cheap shots whilst we continue to moderate the board as we see fit. 

[Richard246]

I think this may be true and Frank knew this when he took over perhaps if Frank does not get Derby promoted he may move on anyway.

 

[G STAR RAM]

59 minutes ago, AdamRam said:

Not sure why people drooling has got anything to do with the posters point.  They won’t have sight of the cash flow and understand the implications of spending X million.

As for bad decisions, January transfer window under clement for one, knowing that there was a possibility of sacking the manager and allowing him to spend so much cash. 

Not that I’m in any way saying that he hasn’t  been good for the club, he is after all paying for the mistakes, however IF the rumours are true, it’s a bit of a worry that he has allowed it to run to losses of 3M and he now wants out because of this.

The posters point was that MM made bad decisions that they knew were bad at the time, just wondered which decisions they were referring to as I don't remember many decisions being called out at the time, in fact I remember it being quite the opposite with a lot of posts being about us stealing rivals best players and Sam Rush always getting his man.

[CornwallRam]

I think that FFP limits the choice of new owners. 

It's incredibly hard for a non-parachute club to compete for automatic promotion without seriously breaching FFP. A new owner can't simply walk in and throw £200 million at us knowing that there'd be a 90% chance of promotion - unless they went 'do or die' and ignored FFP completely. 

Even to stay in the top ten, and thus be in with a chance of winning the play-off lottery, and owner has to put in something like £20m per season. That probably gives a 5% chance of promotion each season - not a fantastically attractive investment opportunity. And trying to turn a profit in the Championship bring the likelihood of relegation to something like 90%, so that's no viable either.

It seems to me that the best way around FFP is group ownership. If our owners also had other clubs where they could make losses without worrying about FFP style sanctions, they could 'sell' or loan us players of sufficient quality to really compete and the losses would not be Derby County's. That's where Forest are heading and what Watford did. It's also the only realistic future I see if Mel sells up.

Do we want to be part of a group? I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea, but am certainly hypocritical enough to celebrate like there's no tomorrow if it brings Derby County success.

[Parsnip]

9 minutes ago, David said:

I think the saying goes a clock is always right twice a day.

a *stopped* clock...

[Day]

1 minute ago, Parsnip said:

a *stopped* clock...

I should have stopped to proof read my post, but you know what I meant so the point still stands. 

[cheron85]

If Uncle Mel was losing £30m a season surely we'd automatically be in breach of FFP? He's only allowed to plug a hole that size over a period of 3 years isn't he?

I appreciate there may be costs he can throw in which wouldn't come into FFP calculations but aren't they mostly things which you wouldn't do if you were trying to sell? Improving training facilities, youth facilities, stuff around the ground etc?

[Parsnip]

Just now, David said:

I should have stopped to proof read my post, but you know what I meant so the point still stands. 

God you're so defensive. What's wrong with 'oh yeah, thanks Parsnip.'?

[Smyth_18]

This summer will be crucial for the clubs future if this is true (as if it wasn't already).

It could go either way though. Thinking forward to this time next year, it feels literally any scenario is possible.

[Mafiabob]

20 minutes ago, Topram said:

Bloody hell, careful for what we wish for, look at Coventry Charlton Blackpool etc the EFL don’t care and would let any criminal run clubs, feel for Morris.

Or we could end up with someone who ain’t a criminal? Why do we always bring up examples of worse case scenarios? For every bad chairman/owning group they’ll 10-12 good ones 

[AdamRam]

9 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

The posters point was that MM made bad decisions that they knew were bad at the time, just wondered which decisions they were referring to as I don't remember many decisions being called out at the time, in fact I remember it being quite the opposite with a lot of posts being about us stealing rivals best players and Sam Rush always getting his man.

If your going by the majority of the forum then I’d agree, however that shouldn’t be the baseline against one posters view who may have been concerned around the level of spending or decisions that MM has undertaken.

[Stive Pesley]

15 minutes ago, David said:

Mel Police? 

If fans use this board to peddle rumours without sources off as fact then yes, the moderators will remove. Be it about Mel, players signing, leaving or sexual activity as is often the case.

We will continue to moderate the forum this way regardless of who the owner is.

Whilst we may deny 1 fan the Internet points and glory for breaking ITK information first on this forum, we will take that over allowing the hundreds of others that want to peddle nonsense that comes out of these anonymous bedroom dwelling Twitter accounts on a daily basis.

These Mel selling rumours have been going on for the last couple of years now, whilst it “may” be true this time, I think the saying goes a clock is always right twice a day.

Feel free to continue your cheap shots whilst we continue to moderate the board as we see fit. 

A slightly over-sensitive reaction?

I simply meant that I know you walk a tightrope over what does/doesn't get posted (you spoke about it at length on the Derbycountyblog podcast the other day) and I know you want to maintain a good relationship with the club - so I don't blame you for moderating closely on stuff regarding the owner

Is that a "cheap shot"? Really?

 

[King Kevin]

Seen it all before .Mel is to the youngsters what Sam Longson / Lionel etc was to us oldies DCFC will still be going long after we've disappeared . About time we had a bit of excitement and there was some football too.

[SSD]

When we live in a world of the second tier of non-league football having a number of full-time teams, I'm guessing the majority of owners in our division would need to be billionaires. Sad times.

[The_Sheriff]

I like the fact our chairman is passionate for the club. Despite his mistakes I would rather someone who has the clubs interest at heart as opposed to someone who has no connection and most likely is looking to make money.

 

 

[Day]

3 minutes ago, Mafiabob said:

Or we could end up with someone who ain’t a criminal? Why do we always bring up examples of worse case scenarios? For every bad chairman/owning group they’ll 10-12 good ones 

You are right of course, but with Blackpool, Bolton, Charlton, Notts County and Coventry all in the news at the minute, I think fans have a right to feel slightly nervous about what the future may hold if Mel was to leave which is why many are and will be saying be careful what you wish for.

Don't forget SISU made an attempt to take over Derby so the Coventry one is a little close to home as the Football League are threatening to shut them down if they cannot tell them why they are playing next season.

There seems to be a growing trend in football now where fans get excited over the sale of their club as it could lead to a Sheikh takeover, the next Man City. They were convinced that was happening to those lot down the A52, tea towels bought from Wilko to wrap round their heads, up went the Kuwait flag on the stadium roof then the next day a HMRC winding up order in the post.

Obviously we know your thoughts on the ownership, but you must understand why there would be a certain level of anxiety over the article by some fans that are more appreciative of Mel's efforts at the club?

[Bald Eagle's Barmy Army]

2 minutes ago, Simsy said:

I like the fact our chairman is passionate for the club. Despite his mistakes I would rather someone who has the clubs interest at heart as opposed to someone who has no connection and most likely is looking to make money.

 

 

Probably like 95% of football club owners.

A business (and Derby are a buiness BTW) will be most successful when the owner isn't too attached to it. 

I love Mel and I'm glad he's been our owner but maybe the time is right for a change and I also trust Mel to make the right decision going forward whoever comes in. Afterall, he will still be a supporter and will want to see it run properly.